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		<H2>About This Guide</H2>
		<P><A NAME="PToC2" ></A>Partial Table-of-Contents
		<MENU>
<LI><A NAME="PToC_8" HREF="#HDRASWTS">A Suggestion on Where to Start</A>
<LI><A NAME="PToC_9" HREF="qikgu007.htm">A Note on the Window
System</A>
<LI><A NAME="PToC_10" HREF="qikgu008.htm">Typographic Conventions</A>
<LI><A NAME="PToC_11" HREF="qikgu009.htm">Related Publications and
Sources</A>
<MENU>
<LI><A NAME="PToC_12" HREF="qikgu009.htm#HDRIBPUBS">IBM Publications</A>
<LI><A NAME="PToC_13" HREF="qikgu009.htm#HDRNONPUBS">Non-IBM Publications</A>
<LI><A NAME="PToC_14" HREF="qikgu009.htm#HDRMOREINF">Other sources of
information</A>
</MENU></MENU><HR><P>
<P>
This guide presents a "hands on" introduction to Data Explorer
and is designed to help you start working with it immediately.
<UL COMPACT>
<LI><A HREF="qikgu010.htm">Chapter 1. "A Very Quick Overview"</A>, is
a 2-page summary of the Data Explorer
system and its main features.
The purpose of this overview is to give you a clear general outline
of the Data Explorer tools and interfaces and of their functions in the
process of visualizing data.
<LI><A HREF="qikgu011.htm">Chapter 2. "Tutorial I: Using Data
Explorer"</A>, covers most of the basic functions of
Data Explorer--at a level accessible to any new user.
It briefly introduces the Visual Program Editor (VPE) before
concentrating on the Image Window--the user
interface for directly presenting and
manipulating the images generated
by visual programs.
<LI><A HREF="qikgu016.htm">Chapter 3. "Tutorial II: Editing and Creating
Visual Programs"</A>, uses step-by-step examples to illustrate the use
of the VPE in the more advanced tasks of creating and
modifying visual programs.
(<A HREF="qikgu016.htm">Chapter 3. "Tutorial II: Editing and Creating
Visual Programs"</A> also includes a list of the sample
visual programs supplied with Data Explorer.)
<LI><A HREF="qikgu027.htm">Chapter 5. "Importing Data"</A>, explains how
to import data into Data Explorer,
using the Data Prompter and its companion file-viewing facility, the
Data Browser.
</UL>
<HR>
<H2><A name="HDRASWTS"></A>A Suggestion on Where to Start</H2>
<P>
If you have never used Data Explorer before, read <A
HREF="qikgu010.htm">Chapter 1. "A Very Quick Overview"</A>
and then start on the tutorials.
If you are familiar with Data Explorer, you may want to focus on sample programs
that involve the kind of visualization tasks you encounter in your
own work.
For that purpose, <A HREF="qikgu025.htm">Chapter 4. "Sample Visual
Programs and Sample Macros"</A>, lists the sample visual
programs and macros supplied with Data Explorer.
<P>
You can follow the tutorials in this Guide or on-line.
To use the on-line version,

		<UL COMPACT>
<LI>type <TT>dx -tutor</TT> and press the Enter key,
<I>or</I>

<LI>Choose <TT><STRONG>Run Tutorial</STRONG></TT> from the Data Explorer Startup
window.

</UL>
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